Polymer optical waveguides are a promising approach to enable optical interconnects as a short reach communication platform for high-end servers and supercomputers. There are also several other potential application markets for polymer optical waveguides.
Known methods to fabricate optical interconnects are based on planar fabrication methods. For example, a lower cladding layer is deposited on a substrate. A core layer is deposited and patterned on the lower cladding layer. The core layer and lower cladding layer are covered with an upper cladding layer. Core and cladding layers are typically transparent, dielectric materials. The core layer has a different refractive index than the cladding layers. Several of these layers produce a multi-layer structure with each layer containing one or more waveguides. This particular fabrication method is generally applicable to both small and large scale substrates.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,388, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a polymer optical waveguide and a method of fabricating the same. U.S. Patent Application No. 20070258691, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes methods for fabricating polymer optical waveguides, and polymer optical waveguides themselves wherein at least one of the optical layers is deposited by a two-stage deposition process. In particular, the two-stage deposition process comprises spinning as the second step. Preferably, the polymer optical waveguide comprises a three layer structure comprising a lower cladding layer, a light guiding core layer and an upper cladding layer, supported on a substrate. The process has particular application to the volume production of polymer optical waveguides on large area substrates.